David Axelrod: Trump Not #Racist ~ Shame on Both Trump & Clinton Campaigns For Using Race To Get Votes! | Blog#42

David Axelrod appeared on Bill Maher’s show and said Donald Trump isn’t racist, but that he exploited race in order to get votes.

“The thing that I find offensive is, I don’t think Donald Trump is a racist.”

David Axelrod

Oh, really now? Axelrod differentiates between being overtly racist and exploiting racism for one’s benefit? If both behaviors don’t fit the definition of racism, what the heck does?

Mind you, David Axelrod worked for Mayor Harold Washington’s campaign and, later, for Barack Obama. Axelrod now teaches at a university, so this is particularly disappointing.

https://youtu.be/TraSepJ8mg4

Donald Trump not only insulted African Americans, Mexicans and Arabs, but he and his daughter, Ivanka, and his son in law, Jared Kushner, also stood by, silently, as his sons and his white supremacist supporters engaged in anti-Semitic activities. Ivanka Trump is married to Jared Kushner, owner of the New York Observer. She converted to Judaism prior to her marriage to Kushner.

If Trump “merely” exploited this nation’s original sin of racism by saying what he needed to say in order to garner votes, what does it say about the Democrats who were successful in getting journalists and academics to publish articles about Senator Bernie Sanders’ Jewish background and lack of religiosity in this nation’s major newspapers? What does it say about the Clinton campaign that Black Lives Matter was never even acknowledged or supported? What does it say that former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, emailed Democratic members of Congress, urging them not to support Black Lives Matter policies?

What does it say about the Clinton campaign and the DNC that they actively promoted the narrative whereby former white middle class and blue collar workers who voted for Trump or abstained from voting at all, did so out of racism and not out of disagreement with Hillary Clinton’s neoliberalism? This narrative was what the entirety of the news media hammered its audience with day in, day out.

Post-election, we are left with a deeply divided Democratic electorate, with liberals pointing the finger at everyone else. But now that everyone used race as a wedge in this election, who is it that will capture the genie and put it back in its bottle? Donald? Hillary? Axelrod? Donna Brazile? Debbie Wasserman-Schultz? Neera Tanden? John Podesta? Anyone at the DNC who sent emails suggesting anti-Sanders articles? Anyone at the DNC and Clinton Campaign who sent cynical emails about Black voters? Anyone willing to take responsibility for taking advantage of and then deepening existing divisions? No?

There is a lot to be angry about following this election. We are a racist nation. We’ve been racist from the founding of our nation and we’ve done little to nothing to change it. We all carry in us at least some bias, whether it is conscious or subconscious.

A lot of Democratic voters consciously stuck their heads in the sand, this election cycle, and President Trump is the consequence. Want to fix it? Join a progressive grassroots movement. Join Bernie Sanders’ Our Revolution. Sign Bernie Sanders’ petition supporting Rep. Keith Ellison’s appointment as new DNC Chair! Support the ACLU. Get active and stay active!